DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A destroyed No. 25 AM Racing Ford Mustang came to a halt on the Daytona International Speedway pit road on Friday, Aug. 22. Climbing out of it moments later came a sweaty and exhausted Harrison Burton.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series driver walked around the smoldering wreckage of the Ford constantly rubbing his neck and checking his hand. Moments earlier, he had completed nearly 90 laps of racing at the 2.5-mile behemoth of a racetrack with fiberglass in his neck and face.
It occurred near lap 10 when the No. 25 was sent spinning down the backstretch. The resulting damage shredded parts of the car body and sent fiberglass directly into the cockpit. Even more miraculously, the fiberglass cut Burton’s neck and even landed parts of it in his eyes.
“Honestly, just probably scared me more than anything,” Burton said to media on pit road. “I just felt a bunch of fiberglass hitting my neck. It hurts, but it’s fine. It’s just like little splinters more or less, so no big deal. I’m completely fine. I got it in my eye through my eye. I got it all over the place.”
The 24-year-old came to pit road immediately after to receive relief from his pit crew and a 10-lap rain delay afterward allowed the young driver to receive further relief.
“I got it in my eye from the helmet fan and everything,” Burton continued. “But just thankful to our guys for helping me out, getting me stuff to kind of get it rinsed out of my eye. Like my eyes are fine, which is good. That stuff can linger.”
However, to make matters worse, the AM Racing driver’s radio was malfunctioning, making the crew to try and fix the communication equipment further.
To top it all off, they still had around a whole 90 laps of racing left.
Yet they persevered. The No. 25 not only recovered in stage one but actually went on to finish seventh in stage two. For a team that is looking to extend their lead above the playoff cutline with only two races left, it was a critical effort.
“I just never really got much going other than riding around in like sixth to 10th,” Burton recalled. “So, I wanted to control more, but I just didn’t get up front. I really had a lot of adversity with the damage and all that, so proud of our guys. Thankful I made it out of Daytona without doing someone doing what I did to other people last year.
“[I] should be okay on points. I really don’t know where everyone else finished, but we should at least be in the hunt, so it should be all right.”
What wasn’t as helpful, however, was what occurred with four laps to go. Burton, along with 10 other drivers, were caught in a large crash that took him out of the race.
Burton was running in the top 15 when the accident happened right in front of him. He was caught up in the melee and the resulting damage sent him to the back of the field.
It made matters worse, as Burton rejoined the race and restarted near the tail of the field for the race’s one and only overtime restart. With one lap to go, he was in prime position to be involved in the last multi-car crash.
At the end of the night, Burton had been involved in three separate accidents all with pieces of car lodged in his head.
Yet despite everything, he’s going home with a 16th-place finish and even beat his playoff cutline rivals.
Suffice it to say, he still some things to smile about.
“I’ve had worse races,” Burton said with a smirk. “I’ve had better ones too, obviously, but yeah, I’ve had that in late model races before. I’ve had metal in my eye. I’ve had earplugs fall. I’ve just had weird random stuff happen like we all do.
“Yeah, this was not too bad, so I’m all right.”
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT